218 



NA TURE 



[JANUARY 8, 190; 



This was a very instructive test, and another making 

 a comparison between doors of different material and 

 construction gives some important results : — 



" A Wood Door covered with Tinned Steel Plates. 



" An Iron-framed and Panelled Door. 



" Object of Test. 



" To record the effect of a fierce fire of one hour 

 gradually increasing to a temperature of 2000 F., followed 

 suddenly by the application for five minutes of a stream 

 of water and consequent rapid cooling. 



"The door-openings were approximately 3ft. 9in. by 

 7ft. 3in., and the doors hung to open inwards — that is 

 towards the fire. 



" Summary of Effect. 



" The wood door covered with tinned steel plates re- 

 mained in position, but was much buckled and bulged, 

 and the upper part gradually inclined inwards to a con- 

 siderable extent, permitting the passage of flame. The 

 first spurt of flame over the top of the door was seen 

 after five minutes. 



"The iron-framed and panelled door remained in 

 position, but became red hot, buckled and warped con- 

 siderably together with its rebated frame. The upper 

 corner on the lock side gradually inclined inwards to a 

 considerable extent, permitting the passage of flame. 

 The first spurt of flame was seen after twenty minutes." 



The two volumes under consideration contain the 

 following numbers of tests, all of the same elaborate 

 kind as the two selected for quotation, and with excellent 

 illustrations showing the construction of the objects 

 tested and the appearance presented after the tests : — ■ 

 Floors 11, ceilings 2, partitions 11, materials 1, 

 doors 23, glazing 8, fire-curtains 3, making in all 59. 



The Fire Prevention Committee intimates that 



" In order to ensure the steady continuation and 

 development of its investigations, it is absolutely neces- 

 sary that it should receive every possible support from 

 public authorities, learned societies, the professions 

 interested, and above all from that great community of 

 industrial firms primarily affected by fire." 



It may be hoped that this kind of support will in some 

 manner be afforded, but it has to be remembered that 

 the kind of bodies appealed to can never be expected to 

 move quickly and that some interference on their part 

 would be inevitable ; so that on the whole it may be 

 doubted whether it would have been possible for the 

 Committee within the space of five years, which it gives 

 as the period of its existence, to provide the large amount 

 of information contained in these volumes, if it had been 

 hampered with the collaboration of any external 

 influence. 



The volumes under consideration contain much 

 valuable and trustworthy information on a subject quite 

 unknown to the general public and only imperfectly 

 known to many so-called experts, of whom some have 

 taken up one branch, some another, but very few have 

 mastered the details of all. 



In conclusion, it may be stated that the volumes 

 entitled " Facts on Fire Prevention " should prove of 

 great assistance to all who have to deal with the pre- 

 servation of life and property from fire. Emeritus. 

 NO. 1732, VOL. 67] 



TWO BOOKS ON IMMERSED SHIPS. 

 A, -rial Navigation : a Practical Handbook on the Con- 

 s/ruction of Dirigible Balloons, Aerostats, Aeroplanes 

 and Aeromotors. By Frederick Walker, C.E. Pp. xvi 

 + 151. (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1902.) 

 Price "]s. 6d. net. 

 Submarine Warfare, Past, Present and Future. By 

 Herbert C. Fyfe. With an Introduction by Admiral 

 the Hon. Sir Edmund Robert Fremantle, G.C.B., 

 C M.G., and a Chapter on the Probable Future of 

 Submarine Boat Construction by Sir Edward J. Reed, 

 M.P. Pp. xxviii + 332. (London : Grant Richards, 

 1902.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 

 yHE problems dealt with in these two books have a 

 *- certain similarity in that in each case the ship, or 

 to use a more general term, the machine or contrivance, 

 has to navigate wholely immersed in the medium for 

 which it is designed, and this similarity is not disturbed 

 by the condition that the submersible may have also to 

 navigate on the upper surface of the sea. for the balloon, 

 and especially the flying machine, equally has to start 

 and to finish at the lower surface of the atmosphere. 



There is also a similarity in the two books. The price 

 of each is the same, to wit 7s. 6d. Here the similarity 

 ends. It would be difficult to find accidentally thrown 

 together two works which might have so much in common, 

 but which make so violent a contrast. 



The aerial book is disappointing, to say the least. A 

 large part is taken up with descriptions and illustrations 

 of the schemes of the hopeless crank. These are 

 described as seriously as the few attempts which have 

 been made by engineers and others on sounder lines, 

 and the reader is left without guidance as to how much 

 is worthy of sober consideration. An appearance of 

 precision is imparted by the introduction of a large 

 number of formula? and of tables calculated from them 

 the accuracy of which it does not seem necessary to 

 examine. It is a little remarkable that with such an 

 extended title the author should not have thought the 

 names of Lilienthal and of Pilcher worth mentioning. 

 The dreariness of this # practical handbook is slightly 

 relieved by some diagrams of the machine of Santos 

 Dumont and by quite a nice frontispiece showing the 

 rounding of the Eiffel Tower. 



In his "Submarine Warfare," Mr. Fyfe has in effect 

 collected and produced a series of essays, partly histori- 

 cal, partly mechanical and partly of more general interest, 

 on the submarine from different points of view. This is 

 not a text-book in any sense of the term, but a work 

 which anyone of wide interests will read with pleasure. 

 It is not necessary to begin at the beginning and read 

 solidly through lest anything should be lost which would 

 make subsequent chapters unintelligible. The reader 

 may pick and choose first whichever chapter most takes 

 his fancy. The illustrations are numerous and excellent. 

 There has been considerable doubt in this country 

 whether the submarine will be found a valuable weapon 

 in war, i.e. valuable to those who use it, or whether when 

 the time comes to put it to serious trial it will be found 

 more dangerous to the crew than to the ships which it is 

 attacking. It is certain that until very recently this was 



